A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device to feed fibers to a carding machine or the like, and more particularly to a web former having a shaker to compress open fibers down a chute to be delivered to subsequent textile equipment. The open fibers are fed downwardly into the chute by means of a distributor, condenser or separator. The movable shaker plate is displaced in a horizontal direction by an offset cam means. Located at the bottom of the chute are aluminum fluted delivery rolls which are driven by a card feed roll or the like. The card feed roll draws the compressed fiber through the fluted aluminum rolls to further transporting equipment which moves the fibers to other textile equipment for subsequent treatment of the textile fibers.
B. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for feeding a web of uniform density and thickness commonly referred to as web formers, are well known and have been described in the prior art. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,750,235 there is disclosed a web former which uses rolls to feed fibers onto a spiked inclined apron. The fibers are transported upwardly the spiked apron on a rotary comb which drops the fibers down a shaft. The shaft is formed by a front wall and a shaker plate. The shaker plate compresses the fibers introduced into the shaft and moves them downwardly to an outlet opening for feeding the fibers to subsequent textile equipment.
A drawback to U.S. Pat. 3,750,235 resides in the fact that the web former is unable to handle denser fibers such as pima, cotton, nylon or bleached cotton. Also, the movable shaker plate is moved by two shaker arms which are secured to shafts and which oscillate the shaker plate along a horizontal direction backwardly and forwardly. Such shaker arms require pivots and the corresponding structure is journalled in bearings. The present invention incorporates a rather simple offset cam which moves the shaker plate and also incorporates a bent shaker plate which facilitates the handling of denser fibers downwardly through the chute to fluted aluminum delivery rolls.
A fiber feeding device employing only a single arm and link at the bottom of the shaker plate is disclosed in U.S. Pat. 3,738,476. A pivot is secured to a casing and the shaker plate at an upward portion of the shaker plate. Once again, there is no disclosure in this patent of a bent shaker plate actuated by an offset cam means, nor is there disclosed a set of fluted aluminum delivery rolls for delivering the compressed fibers to a carding machine. Also, this patent utilizes as a method for placing fibers into the chute an apron with spikes to lift the fibers to a position such that they may be moved by a doffer downwardly through the inlet of the shaft.
A method and apparatus for distributing fiber material from a plurality of sources to a plurality of stations through a distributor is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,649,082. In this patent, one embodiment of the invention describes a distributing system which has a single station and a number of stations which can be fed only from one source, and second group of stations which can be fed from either source depending on the position of a ganged switch or switches.